Today on The Bigg Success Show, we continue our conversation with John Jantsch, the Duct Tape Marketer. Last time, John talked about the importance of getting closer to customers and strategic partnerships to build business. Let’s get back to the conversation …

John, one of the businesses I used to own was a plumbing company. In that business, I learned that many times there are ways to work with competitors – especially if they aren’t direct competition. Even within an industry, people may have specialties and you may find people that you can partner with that are better at something than you are.

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The way to really look at that is, “How can you become more valuable to your customer?” Look at it that way as opposed to, “Who can I go to who will refer business me to me?” That’s the mistake that a lot of people make. They reach out to people and say, “Hey, why don’t you send me some business?” And even though they may be capable of doing so, what’s the motivation in that? If the motivation can be, “How can I help you grow your business? How can I provide more value to my customers?” Building a strong network around everything that your customers might need, with you being the go-to person to recommend other people to them, is a great marketing and business strategy. Your customers will become much more loyal if they can see you as somebody who cares about their success as opposed to somebody who is just there to sell them something.

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It’s all about being real – now more than ever. Going back to what’s been going on in 2008, some of the big guys have fallen and so has trust. People want to feel like they can rely on you.

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Right. In fact, my book starts out with my definition of marketing for the small business: finding someone who has a need and getting them to know, like, and trust you. That’s the real business that every small business is in. Well, frankly any business, but certainly the small business who can’t “buy” know, like and trust. If you keep that as the focus, it becomes the filter for every decision that you make that has a customer impact in your business.

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It seems to me, John, that you’re saying we need to focus on the relationships and not so much on the revenue. The revenue will come.

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I certainly believe that. I’m the first to acknowledge that sometimes you have to put food on the table. There is a lot of pressure to actually make the sale. But long-term, the companies that will survive this economic storm will focus on adding value, differentiating, and building a brand that can be trusted. In some cases, these companies won’t experience any downturn and may even find it to be an opportunity. Because people who haven’t been doing things right – not treating people very well, not doing good work, but the phone keeps ringing because people need stuff done – will be the first to go. If you’re in there doing things right in good times and bad, a shakeout in your industry may be an opportunity.

We’re so grateful that you took time to read our post today. Join us next time when we wrap up our conversation with John. You’ll hear about the one thing you have to embrace to keep your business from being left behind. Until then, here’s to your bigg success!

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